Coda Financial Coaching

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Coda Financial Coaching CPA who empowers striving professionals and growing families to live abundantly.

20/10/2026

If it takes one click to subscribe, it should take ONE click to unsubscribe. No phone calls, no further questions asked.

That’s the principle behind NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new “Click-to-Cancel” rule, and I couldn’t agree more.

Companies have perfected the art of making it effortless to sign up for subscriptions and unnecessarily difficult to cancel them.

And they’re counting on one thing: You forgetting you’re still paying.

That’s where budgeting apps come in.

One of their most underrated features is the ability to automatically recognize recurring subscriptions and payments, without you having to manually label or track every transaction.

Companies shouldn’t make it difficult to stop paying them. And you shouldn’t have to work hard just to figure out who you’re paying.

Wondering whether your spending is in alignment with your goals? Let’s talk:

https://calendly.com/codafinancialcoaching/coda-financial-coaching-discovery-call

13/10/2026

Trump Accounts went fully online this month. But are they the best way to build wealth for your children?

For most families, I think there are better options.

🎓 Saving for education? Prioritize a 529 plan. Investments grow tax-free when used for qualified education expenses, including eligible trade schools and apprenticeships.

💰 Saving for retirement? Encourage your child to get a summer job, then match their savings in a custodial Roth IRA.

Here’s an example:

Your teenager earns $2,000 over the summer. They invest $1,000 in a Roth IRA, and you match it with another $1,000.

Now they have $2,000 potentially growing tax-free for decades, plus $1,000 left to enjoy their summer!

And they’re learning something even more valuable: the importance of working, saving, and investing early.

You can even fund the entire IRA yourself, provided contributions don’t exceed your child’s eligible earnings or the annual IRA limit.

Should you ignore Trump Accounts? Absolutely not! Claim the free $1,000 government contribution if your child qualifies, along with any other available free contributions.

But before investing your own money, consider the tax advantages of 529 plans and custodial Roth IRAs.

Want to build a financial legacy for your children but don’t know where to start? Let’s talk!

https://calendly.com/codafinancialcoaching/coda-financial-coaching-discovery-call

06/10/2026

I almost forgot about $15,000 of my own money.

And I’m a CPA and financial coach.

A few weeks ago, I got a letter about a 401(k) from a job I left 5 years ago.

I was confused. I thought I had rolled that account into my IRA years ago.

Turns out…I hadn’t.

There was about $15,000 still sitting there.

And apparently I’m not alone.

Americans have an estimated $2.1 TRILLION sitting in forgotten or left-behind 401(k) accounts.

That letter was the only reason the account came back onto my radar.

So if you’ve changed jobs a few times, here’s your reminder:

Don’t assume you rolled everything over.

Make a list of your old employers. Check every retirement account. Track down anything you’re missing.

Because sometimes getting your finances organized isn’t about finding a better investment. It’s literally about finding your money.

Have you thought about everything that could be robbing you of your hard-earned money? Let’s talk.

https://calendly.com/codafinancialcoaching/coda-financial-coaching-discovery-call

03/10/2026

Two objections came up on my last Coast FI post:

1️⃣ “If the market tanks, it’ll recover and put you back on track.”

Not necessarily.

If your plan assumes your current investments will compound to your retirement goal without more contributions, a major downturn can cost you years of growth.

The market may recover eventually—but your original retirement timeline may not.

2️⃣ “You can just move into bonds and Treasuries as retirement gets closer.”

You can, and that may reduce risk.

But it also lowers your expected return.

If your Coast FI number was based on equity-like growth, moving heavily into safer assets changes the math. You may need more money, more contributions, or more time.

That’s why I think Coast FI works better as a milestone than a finish line.

Don’t know where to start with your retirement savings? Let’s talk.

https://calendly.com/codafinancialcoaching/coda-financial-coaching-discovery-call

30/09/2026

NVIDIA just announced a $150 billion stock buyback. To put that in perspective, that would be enough money to purchase companies such as Pfizer, Uber and Anheuser Busch outright.

Stock buybacks generally do two things:

1. Return value to shareholders without creating the same immediate tax consequences as a dividend.

2. Signal confidence. Management is showing that even after funding the business, it still believes buying back its own stock is a good use of cash.

That’s also another sign that, at least in the short term, a large share of market gains may continue to be driven by AI-linked companies.

But that doesn’t mean you should abandon diversification.

My preference:

👉 S&P 500 index funds if you want more exposure to large tech and AI companies.

👉 Total stock market index funds if you want broader diversification.

You don’t have to pick the next NVIDIA to benefit from it.

Don’t even know where to start in this crazy market? Let’s talk.

https://calendly.com/codafinancialcoaching/coda-financial-coaching-discovery-call

28/09/2026

What if college prepared students for real life instead of just preparing them for exams? 🎓

Cornell University just released a major report reimagining higher education for a rapidly changing workforce. One of its proposals is to expand project-based learning and place greater emphasis on developing sound judgment.

Think about what that means. Instead of simply memorizing information and finding the right answer, students would spend more time learning how to:

👉Solve complex problems that don’t have obvious answers.
👉Manage their time and juggle competing priorities.
👉Work collaboratively and communicate effectively.
👉Recover from setbacks, adapt and try again.

These are the skills that matter when you enter the workforce, where complex problems rarely have clear cut solutions.

And this could be a HUGE win for people’s finances. 💰

With the rising cost of higher education, students and their families should be asking what they’re actually getting for their money.
An education that develops practical, transferable skills can help graduates navigate career changes, create opportunities and potentially increase their lifetime earning power.
Those same skills also translate directly into managing personal finances. Creating a budget, paying off debt and building wealth all require planning, discipline, adaptability and the ability to bounce back when things don’t go according to plan.

What do you think? Should colleges spend more time teaching practical problem-solving and life skills?

21/09/2026

Coast FI can feel like you’ve “won” retirement early.

You hit your number, stop contributing, and let compound growth do the rest.

But there’s a hidden risk:

You’re now much more dependent on the market cooperating with your timeline.

Say you have $400,000 and stop saving.

Then a bear market cuts it to $280,000.

You haven’t just lost money on paper.

You may have disrupted the entire lifestyle decision you made around Coast FI.

Maybe you reduced your hours.

Took the lower-paying job.

Started traveling more.

Or simply spent more because you thought retirement saving was finished.

Now the math may suddenly say:

“You need to start contributing again.”

Meanwhile, someone who kept saving through the same downturn is buying stocks at a discount.

Their portfolio is down too, but every new contribution buys more shares.

Those bear-market contributions can become some of their best long-term investments.

That’s the irony:

Bear markets punish people who are relying entirely on past savings much more than people who are still actively accumulating.

Coast FI isn’t bad.

But a spreadsheet showing a smooth 7% return can make it look far more predictable than real life.

Worried a bad market may interrupt your life plans? Let’s talk.

https://calendly.com/codafinancialcoaching/coda-financial-coaching-discovery-call

14/09/2026

If everyone gets a $5,000 check, did anyone really get $5,000 richer?

That’s what bothers me about policies like this.

This isn’t narrowly targeted help for people who truly need it. And it isn’t a policy designed to reward work, productivity, saving, or investment.

It’s simply handing everyone money.

And if that money contributes to more inflation, larger deficits, or higher taxes later, savers can end up paying for it twice.

We tell people to delay gratification, build an emergency fund, invest, and create wealth.

Then we pursue policies that risk reducing the purchasing power of the wealth they worked so hard to build.

That is a terrible message to send.

We should be encouraging people to work, save, invest, and become more financially independent—not making them wonder why they bothered saving if their dollars are just going to be inflated away.

A government check can increase the number in your bank account.

It cannot, by itself, make your standard of living better.

09/09/2026

Coast FI sounds great on paper.

Save and invest aggressively early. Hit a number where your existing investments should grow into enough for retirement on their own.

Then stop contributing and “coast.”

But there’s a cost to that strategy that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough:

What if everything actually goes RIGHT?

Imagine you hit your Coast FI number at 40 and stop investing for retirement.

Then the next 10–20 years bring enormous gains in productivity from AI, robotics, automation, biotech, energy innovation, or technologies we haven’t even imagined yet.

You’re still invested, so yes—you participate in those gains.

But you’ve voluntarily stopped buying more ownership in the market.

And those contributions you stopped making in your 40s and 50s don’t just represent the dollars you chose to spend instead.

They represent all of the future compounding those dollars could have produced.

That’s the part of Coast FI I think gets overlooked.

The goal of financial independence shouldn’t necessarily be:

“What is the earliest point when I can stop building wealth?”

Maybe the better question is:

“How much flexibility can I enjoy today without unnecessarily giving up tomorrow’s wealth?”

Because if we really are entering an era where technology dramatically increases productivity and corporate earnings over the coming decades, voluntarily removing yourself from the accumulation phase could become an incredibly expensive decision.

And ironically, that’s the good scenario for Coast FI.

Because this assumes the market cooperates after you stop contributing.

What happens if you hit your Coast FI number…and THEN a bear market arrives?

That creates an entirely different problem.

I’ll break that down in my next post.

Wondering whether the latest Finance TikTok trend is right for you? Let’s talk.

https://calendly.com/codafinancialcoaching/coda-financial-coaching-discovery-call

02/09/2026

Sometimes I get asked if I’m worried that AI will take my job. And the fact is, there is NO information that I could give you that you couldn’t get from asking AI the right questions. To claim that I’m a special source of knowledge would not only be a lie, but would harm my professional reputation as someone who prides myself on giving my clients the right tools so they can eventually happily FIRE me as a financial coach because they are confident in their path to financial freedom.

But here’s what AI can’t do - it can’t see you nodding along to advice it gives you but see the fear and doubt on your face as you do it. It can’t get to know you holistically and understand what motivates you and adapt accordingly. It may give you the “optimal” solution but not the one that you’ll actually stick to. And you don’t have to look it in the eyes and confront the deeper underlying issues that prevent you from sticking to the plan that you told yourself before that you would follow. A coach looks at you the human being and balances between giving you a path that is best suited to YOU and giving you the tough love you need when you fall off that path.

So by all means, use AI to get all the information about how to save, budget, and invest. Maybe after a few years and a lot of trial and error you’ll even figure this out on your own. But if this is the millionth time you’re firing up that “build me a budget” chat on your favorite AI platform, let’s talk:

https://calendly.com/codafinancialcoaching/coda-financial-coaching-discovery-call

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